Hey guys I’m going to be brewing a sour coming up real soon. I’ve been throwing around the idea of adding lactose but I have a concern that it will take away from the flavors of the fruit. Has anyone made a beer like this. Here is what I’m working with.
6lbs of Pilsner malt
3.5lbs of white wheat
Omega lacto blend for kettle souring
Imperial A44 keviking
6lbs of dark sweet cherry purée
1lb of lactose
1oz of Nelson sauvin
You certainly can! It will cut your sourness a bit and add some body. Just make sure you add it after killing off your lactobacillius or it will break the lactose down.
Im wondering why have you had an example? The only kettle sours or any sours for that matter that ive had have been dry. I kind of comes withe the teritory
I have made a extremely similar sour, the funktional fruit sour from NB and I did it with lactose and wlp 510 for the yeast. Its called a tart shake here when you add lactose to a sour and it tastes good. Not too sweet don’t worry about that. Recognize that when you add the fruit, all the sugar in it will be fermented so it will not be too sweet. I used blackberry puree rather than cherry. I also added pectinase with the puree.
It was so good that a taste panel of 4 selected this for one of the beers for my daughter’s wedding. They liked the fruit sour the best, kolsch second, coconut brown ale 3, ipa 4, dunkel bock last. I thought they were nuts for wanting a tart shake at a wedding as most people are not fond of sour beers even when sweetened with lactose.
Then they told me I had to do it without lactose as groom was allergic to that. I did that by raising mash to 156F (less fermentable sugars) then adding the puree after a 34 F cold crash so it would not ferment and be sweet. After it sat cold a while, I then filtered through a 5 micron filter to clarify it(40 psi delta P!). Kegged it and force carbonated it. No bottling done as that would make a bottle bomb.
sorry for rambling about this special beer.
Like i said never had one.
Here was my response:
